Lockout

ARTICLES ABOUT LOCKOUT BY DATE - PAGE 4

The NHL appears headed toward a 48-game season for the second time in two decades. "I think 48 is most likely at this point, unless the players can expedite their ratification process," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an e-mail Monday. The NHL shortened its 82-game slate to 48 games for the 1994-95 season after a 103-day lockout. A 301-day lockout in 2004-05 made the NHL the first major North American professional sports league to lose an entire season. When the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement was agreed to Sunday morning - after 16 hours of negotiations - there was some talk of having a 50-game season start later this month.

After the 113-day NHL lockout ended in the wee hours Sunday morning, some fans suggested that Scot Beckenbaugh - the federal mediator who steered both sides to an agreement during a 16-hour meeting - should replace the league's commissioner, Gary Bettman, as the person who hands the Stanley Cup to the winning captain this June. Beckenbaugh will live in NHL lore, while Bettman and union boss Donald Fehr will forever be cast as villains because of the way they seemingly took the fans for granted during a laborious, contentious process that alienated millions.

Flyers founder Ed Snider usually sleeps until 8 a.m. on the weekend, but for whatever reason, he woke up at 5 a.m. in his suburban Philadelphia home on Sunday, checked his cellphone, and learned the NHL's 113-day labor dispute had ended. For Snider, it was the perfect way to celebrate his 80th birthday. "This ranks right at the top, as far as birthday gifts," he said in a telephone interview. "What a great birthday!" When Snider read that the lockout was over, he immediately sent an e-mail to Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner.

It was an unofficial practice because the NHL's new collective bargaining agreement still has to be signed, but the Flyers who skated in Voorhees on Monday seemed to have some extra zip during the one-hour session. It had everything to do with the tentative agreement that was forged between the league and the players' union on Sunday, ending the 113-day lockout. "It's been a long four months," said defensemen Kimmo Timonen, one of five Flyers who practiced Monday. "You kind of have to try to be in shape just in case this happens.

It was an unofficial practice because the NHL's new collective bargaining agreement still has to be signed, but the Flyers who skated in Voorhees on Monday seemed to have some extra zip during the one-hour session. It had everything to do with the tentative agreement that was forged between the league and the players' union on Sunday, ending the 113-day lockout. "It's been a long four months," said defensemen Kimmo Timonen, one of five Flyers who practiced Monday. "You kind of have to try to be in shape just in case this happens.

At 5:30 Sunday morning, Flyers winger Scott Hartnell texted the good news to his teammates. "Deal done, boys. " When Jody Shelley read Hartnell's text that the NHL's 113-day labor dispute had ended, he did a double take. "I didn't know whether to believe him," Shelley, the Flyers' enforcer, said Sunday afternoon. "I was like, 'Yeah, right.' And then I did a little research on Twitter, and it was blowing up. " Hartnell wasn't fibbing. The NHL and the players' union reached a tentative agreement at around 5 a.m. on a 10-year collective bargaining agreement, putting an end to a work stoppage that lasted almost four months.

There was elation in Flyers Nation on Sunday as fans awoke to news of the tentative agreement between the National Hockey League and the players' union to end a months-long lockout. "I'm so excited," John Simonton of Exton said as he ate lunch at the Xfinity Live Philadelphia complex across the street from the Wells Fargo Center, the team's home arena. "I've been in withdrawal. " Simonton had just finished getting a fix of professional ice skating at the Fargo Center. But seeing Disney on Ice with his two young children and extended family was not on a par with watching stick-wielding players crashing the net. For Xfinity Live - the restaurant/bar/entertainment extravaganza partly owned by the Flyers' parent company, Comcast-Spectacor - the end of the 113-day, owner-imposed NHL lockout had to feel good.

Unless both sides bypass a chance to salvage a 48-game NHL season - and nearly $2 billion in revenue - the almost-four-month lockout will finally end later this week. The lockout has had countless negatives, but for the Flyers, there is a positive: Andrej Meszaros, one of their best defensemen, is almost ready to start playing. And this: Veteran defenseman Kimmo Timonen, who had back surgery in the summer, seems close to 100 percent. Thanks, lockout. In addition, the work stoppage has helped Andreas Lilja, a depth defenseman who will battle for a third-pairing spot, recover from hip surgery.

After a long, overnight negotiating session lasting nearly 16 hours - or roughly the time it takes the Eagles and Chip Kelly to go from calamari to cheesecake - the National Hockey League and its players emerged from a New York hotel room early Sunday morning with a new collective bargaining agreement. There are three ways to look at this news, which was delivered in the wee hours by commissioner Gary Bettman and union boss Donald Fehr to a small contingent of unwashed reporters, five guys listening on radio in Canada, and exactly no one else.

With the labor dispute holding the season hostage, the NHL has thus far lost an estimated $1.6 billion, which is about double the amount lost by its players. Despite the losses, the lockout continues. It reached its 110th day Thursday, and negotiations - which had been so fruitful in the last week - took a turn for the worse in New York City. The NHL Players' Association, seeking more leverage in the talks, started a two-day player vote to file a disclaimer of interest. The vote is expected to overwhelmingly give the NHLPA's executive board the power to file the disclaimer, which would disband the union and allow it to file a lawsuit that claims the lockout is illegal.